On a Blank Canvas, Gordon Longhorns Begin 2025 Football Season With a Beautiful Picture in Mind

With their facilities wiped out by a tornado, the defending champions return to 11-man football on the road, driven by resilience and a vision to rebuild

Gordon ISD Athletic Director Mike Reed points out the damage to the school’s athletic facilities May 27, 2025 left from when an EF-1 tornado struck the town on May 18, 2025. Due to extensive damage to the bleachers and track, most of what you see in this photo is now gone. / Ronald W. Erdrich/Reporter-News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As high school football kicks off across Texas next week, some programs will be unveiling gleaming stadiums that look more like college arenas than high school fields. For the Gordon Longhorns, the wish is far simpler – to have a field at all.

That stark reality defines Gordon’s 2025 season, where a team preparing for its return to 11-man football does so without a home stadium, without the roar of a home crowd, and without the comforts most programs take for granted.

Tornado leaves Gordon with a ‘blank canvas’

On Sunday evening, May 18, 2025, an EF-1 tornado with peak winds around 105 mph ripped through Gordon in Palo Pinto County, laying waste to much of the school’s athletic infrastructure – including the football and baseball fields, weight room, locker rooms, bleachers, track, and scoreboard. Gordon ISD lost the material backbone of its athletic programs in one violent evening.

After the storm passed, coach and Athletic Director Mike Reed surveyed the devastation the night of the tornado and said on social media, “We are okay. Got in shelter. Did lots of damage. No more football and baseball stadium. All equipment, uniforms, etc., gone. Weight room (collapsed) and destroyed, new gym roof also ripped off in parts, and school damaged.”

A blank canvas now rests at what used to be the football field and track and Gordon High School. Severe damage to the facilities, including chunks of the track that were ripped up, have forced the school to rebuild from scratch. / Mike Reed, Gordon ISD Athletic Director

A softball rests in the foreground of a destroyed facility that appeared to house sports equipment at Gordon High School after an EF-1 tornado devastated much of the campus on Sunday night, May 18, 2025. / Mike Reed

Three months later, with students returned to restored classrooms and a semblance of normalcy, Gordon’s football program is anything but normal. Coach Reed eloquently described the campus as “just a blank canvas that hopefully we can rebuild into a beautiful picture.”

That metaphor captures both the crisis and the possibility facing the Longhorns.

A season with no home games

Facing a season without a home field, Gordon will play its entire schedule – junior high, junior varsity, and varsity – on the road, from Aug. 28 at Richland Hills through Nov. 7 at Gorman. The Longhorns will endure 13 weeks of scrimmages and games, with no gates to open, no concession stands to operate, and no home crowd to rally behind.

The Gordon ISD ball fields May 27, 2025 after an EF-2 tornado destroyed them earlier in the month. / Ronald W. Erdrich/Reporter-News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Coach Reed lays out the practical and financial burdens: planning travel for eight junior high, 10 JV, and 10 varsity away games; replacing lost revenue from ticket and concession sales; funding meals and fuel; erecting temporary practice facilities with shade stations and portable bathrooms; arranging off-campus weight-room access; hauling equipment and hauling the team from one site to another in a season that promises no respite.

Support arrives from across Texas

Still, there are contributions and camaraderie: the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation stepped in with gear, gift cards for athletes, and field assistance; and Tarleton State football players rolled in to help clear debris and lend muscle to recovery efforts. These acts of goodwill helped Gordon begin to piece things back together even before the bond vote that will determine how much more rebuilding is possible.

And then there’s the football itself. Gordon is returning to 11-man football after a perfect 15-0 run and the 1A Division I state championship in six-man last season – another seismic shift atop an already tumultuous situation.

“The 11-man is like starting a new program,” Reed said. “It has its challenges. … We haven’t had time to get excited because of the focus and respect that has to be shown to each week’s opponents.”

Building character through adversity

Still, Reed sees character built through this adversity.

“I’m excited for the adversity that we are currently in as well as the adversity that will be ahead of us,” he said. “Hard days are inevitable and living experiences help build character. I think that’s why we have four boys who are being recruited to play sports at Air Force Academy, West Point, and Naval Academy, as well as a future lawyer, future business owners, and future great men who will excel at all the things they set their minds to.”

In Gordon's case, the field isn’t just turf – it’s a testament to resilience. A town has seen its facilities erased, but not its spirit. The Longhorns are starting with nothing – but on that blank canvas, they’re ready to paint something unforgettable.

2025 Gordon Longhorns schedule (all games away)

Aug. 28 – Richland Hills

Sept. 5 – Valley

Sept. 12 – Strawn

Sept. 19 – Thorndale

Sept. 26 – FW Covenant Classical

Oct. 10 – Lingleville

Oct. 17 – Ranger

Oct. 24 – Bracketville

Oct. 31 – Baird

Nov. 7 – Gorman

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